Modernising the Islands: Irish and Scottish Gaelic Fictions

Abstract

: The islands of Ireland and Scotland are geographically peripheral to the mainlands. Yet they occupy a significant part of both literatures. This may well be because they are perceived as being the least Anglicised, the least dominated by the cultural beasts from the east. For most of the last century this was certainly true. The Irish and Gaelic island literature of both countries was for the most part documentary rather than imaginative during that time. This is not to say that it was not sifted through powerful and individual minds, but just that they did not set forth to invent new or alternative worlds. They are often seen, with a wee little bit and often a dollop of justification, as social documents. As these islands have become as much part of what we call the modern world as anywhere else, writers have been forced to do something else rather than just describe. They had to use their imaginations. This essay examines this journey.